Other interesting stuff

Monday, January 3, 2011

I'm Such a Winner!

One of my unannounced resolutions last year was to enter more competitions. I always complain that I never win anything, but then if you never actually enter anything....?

So this was how I fared in 2010 -

January - I left a comment at Smitten by Britain and won a fab collection of Black Adder DVDs. As you can imagine, this was very rewarding and set the tone for the rest of the year (or so I thought.)

January (for about 20 days straight) - entered the HGTV (Home and Garden TV) Dream Home competition. For some reason (probably the Black Adder win) I "had a feeling" about this one. If you go to the web site, you'll see it's a bit like winning the lottery and the odds are slim, but I just knew it would be mine. Alas, not. Probably just as well because the first thing you have to do is pay hefty taxes on it, which many winners can't afford to do.
This year's Dream Home (above) is in Vermont. I won't be entering as I'd rather ski in Colorado.

January - also entered a competition for a fancy PC at the BlogHer web site. Heard nothing from anyone so I'm assuming that ship has sailed too.

March - filled out a feedback survey on the Sears web site. Apparently there's a winner of $4,000 each month. Wasn't me.

I then must have lost the faith a little as my next effort wasn't until....

July - when I entered a competition from the back of a cereal box. The prize was a round of golf with some famous golfer. (I hate golf but it would have made a great early Christmas present for the Ball & Chain.) The prize givers obviously knew I was an interloper as I was instantly rejected about half way through "entering". Don't know why but it still counts as not winning anything.

Undeterred, in July I also entered to win a BA flight and tickets to Wimbledon 2011. BA sent me an e-mail about this personally, but when I followed up, I was kicked out on account of the competition no longer being open. Sheesh!

September - ever hopeful, I entered another competition on the BlogHer web site; this time for a Porsche I-Pad, whatever that is. (The mental images are great aren't they?). Once again, they didn't get back to me...

Later on that same month I entered a competition at the More magazine web site to win a personalised stamper. Come on people - a personalised stamper fer cryin' out loud. Is that too much ask? It would appear so.

On the same day (I was obviously convinced I'd win something), I enetered the DIY Network's competition to win a log cabin. I know. I know. What the heck do I want with a log cabin? Can you tell I was getting desperate. Oh,....didn't win that either.

October - filled out the customer service survey at the Home Depot (pronounced Deepo) web site after having spent gazillions on a new washer and dryer there. ($5,000 prize per month, plus lots of smaller amounts.) I am beginning to think these monthly "giveaways" are a figment of the companies' imaginations as I've never met a single person who's won anything.

November - filled out yet another customer service survey, this time for Old Navy. I don't know why I bother.

Gave up after that. Now I can really say I never win anything. Or rather, I rarely win anything.

So thanks Melissa, for making my year. Or raising the bar too high. I can't decide!

I won some HMV vouchers on Dulwich Mum's website last year by divulging the worse Christmas present I'd ever received: a deep-fat fryer from my then fiancee. It felt good to have something positive come from the gift so many years later!I also won a Camping Cookbook on Thinly Spread's blog so I'm one up on you now.

Nope I can't say I won very much this year but there again I did at CyberMummy! Only problem was that in my happy haze on the way home I lost my tickets and have never been able to claim....here's hoping that our luck may change in 2011!!!

I won some Christmas tree ornaments in December from crankymonkeys in London, and $4 on a scratch ticket DH bought me for Christmas, but the rest of my year was spent losing. I was particularly unhappy about not winning the $200+ million lottery last week - I'd been hoping that would fund my immediate retirement. At least no one else won though, so there's still this week!

Back in the old days I used to win a little something now and then. Not so much any more, but if you like to read, go to the web sites of your favorite authors. Lots of them are giving away books. To me that's real treasure.

I could have written this -- I even won one of Smitten by Britain's giveaways (the full seasons of Survivors!). In December I even made a full-out effort to enter craft/knitting/crochet blog giveaways and I won zip. Well, I did build up my blog reader and spent money on a few crochet patterns, hmmm.

Once I won a table and chairs at a furniture store when I filled out a ballot on their 100th anniversary. I didn't want the furniture so I sold it. That was a good day.I've stopped entering those online customer 'tell us how we did, surveys', cos they're just a ploy to get more info out of me and they don't actually gear their questions to truly reflect customers' annoyance with things that are bloody annoying in said store! :-)